DAZ Studio Pro 4.6.1.17 General Release, Now Available!

DAZ 3D is pleased to announce the next General Release version of the DAZ Studio Pro - version 4.6.1.17!

What is new in this version? Do I need to update my copy?

The 4.6.1.17 version resolves several issues and implements many improvements since the 4.6.0.18 General Release. More detail on specific fixes/changes/improvements can be found in the Change Log, which can be viewed online within the Documentation Center portion of our site. All new downloads of the DAZ Studio 4.6 Pro product (SKU: 13176) will be of this version.

Highlights are:1) Implemented the concept of a Rigid Follow Node; an Instance derived node whose purpose is to maintain a proportional relationship with specified polygons of a target mesh. Tools for creating a node and establishing reference geometry can be found in the context menu of the Polygon Group Editor viewport tool.2) Fixed UV interpolation in the viewport to match/respect the Edge Interpolation of the object; what you see in the viewport now more closely matches what will be rendered.3) The Property Editor pane has been replaced by the Property Hierarchy pane (for what used to be available on the right side) and an Edit Mode on the Parameters pane (for what used to be available on the left side), and the Property Editor plugin has been removed from the distribution footprint.4) Added Advanced Filtering support in the filter field of the Parameters, Shaping, Posing, Lights, Cameras and Surfaces panes; ala Install Manager Advanced Filtering - currently limited to Syntax Selector, Syntax Modifier and Query Pattern elements of an expression - Scope is currently limited to property labels.5) Re-factored the Scene Info pane to better reflect the actual geometry composition of the scene.6) Fixed FBX import of a node hierarchy, each with geometry; would sometimes be missing geometry.7) Updated OpenSubdiv support to 2.0.18) Updated the 3Delight render engine to 10.0.170; see 3Delight Change Log for more details.9) Updated selection highlighting to indicate the node that is causing the selection. Viewport selection now uses the Accent Color of a given UI Style as the highlight color and the Link Color of a given UI Style as the alternate highlight color. Nodes that promote selection now highlight using the alternate highlight color.10) Significant improvements to viewport display of the Smooth Shaded and Texture Shaded DrawStyles; added a User Interface Preference for enabling/disabling Per Pixel Lighting. These DrawStyle improvements implement per-pixel lighting, rather than the vertex lighting used in earlier versions, with improved specular, reflections and gamma correction; bump and normal map support has been added but is currently disabled due to speed concerns - this will be re-enabled once VBO support for them has been added. Viewport display of the default distant, spot and point lights now match 3Delight results much more closely. These improvements are hardware dependent.11) Numerous improvements to content creation tools; see the change log for details.12) Added support for allowing a BETA build to co-exist with the General Release of the same major version.13) Added support for "Projection Morphs"; used to override the shape of a specific morph with an alternate shape for the purpose of auto-generated morph projections.14) Added support for arbitrary node selection helpers; parented props can now be set [within Joint Editor Tool Settings] to promote viewport selection to their parent node; allows for "handles" to be made from any object in the scene, including instances.15) Added an "Open Recent" submenu to the File menu; lists recently opened/saved scene files. The menus need to be rebuilt for this option to appear; applying a default layout, or importing the Default Advanced menus will cause menus to be rebuilt.16) Added a "Display Separate Items" action to the Parameters, Posing and Shaping pane option menus. These actions toggle whether the display of property groups in the pane are separated according to the items in the scene or consolidated into a single hierarchy.17) Added a "Display Followers" action to the Parameters, Posing and Shaping pane option menus. These actions provide the ability to see the properties of followers (i.e. clothing, hair, etc) in the Parameters, Posing and Shaping panes when the host figure is selected.18) Fixes/workarounds to various GoZ plugin issues; saving of morph assets; spaces and/or special characters in scene item labels causing creation of subtools to halt.19) Added an alternate image option for the splash/about screen

No, the Genesis Starter Essentials content has NOT been updated. But YES, the Genesis 2 Female Starter Essentials content that is provided with the product HAS been updated.

How do I get the latest version?

If you have previously added the DAZ Studio 4.6 Pro product to your account, launch Install Manager, log into your account and type "DAZ Studio 4.6" into the filter field to filter out anything else. Then simply download and install as you would normally.

Optionally, you can locate, download and install DAZ Studio Pro from the Product Library [once you are logged into your account] by entering "DAZ Studio 4.6 Pro" into the text field near the top left of the page and clicking the "Filter" button, or by clicking here. Then, simply click the green "download & install" button to launch Install Manager with an appropriate filter or click the blue "download" button to download the standalone installer.

If this is your first time downloading DAZ Studio Pro, simply follow this link, click the "Add to Cart" button on the page and then follow the checkout process.

*Note:This General Release version is available through Install Manager as well as a standalone installer.

Can I have the General Release and the BETA installed at the same time?

Yes! You can now have both the General Release and a Public Beta (as well as a Private Beta, for those involved in that endeavor), of the same major version, installed at the same time. Please be aware that the settings for each of the builds are now stored independent of each other. This includes mapped content directories, layout, style and style colors, among many others.

What about the plugins I have?

The DAZ Studio 4.5 SDK has not changed in any way that causes it to be binary incompatible with the current release, which means that any plugins created for a previous version of DAZ Studio 4.5 (i.e. 4.5.0.100+) should continue to load and function in this version. That said, as with any new release, there is always the possibility that a plugin has had bugs fixed or features added, so the latest versions should be downloaded and installed if they are provided.

Some plugins that are currently built/produced by DAZ 3D will provide a separate package that is specifically intended for use with this General Release; these packages will not contain "Public Build" in the package name, as that moniker is used for pre-release builds. 3rd party plugins that DAZ 3D creates install packages for will be updated to allow simultaneous installation into the General Release and the pre-release builds. These packages will display as "Product Updates" within Install Manager once they have been updated.

Comments

What has been updated in the G2F Starter Essentials? The Doc center product page doesn't show any new change since the one at the beginning of July, and after downloading again now I can't find any files in the zip with a date after that either .... which is one day before the date stamp of the files in My Library?

Ok, so I also have the beta installed which says version ending in 14, this new thing supplants that because it ends in 17?

So now I need to uninstall the recently installed plugins that only went to the beta and reinstall them? I have the LAMH full plugin, Infinito, the Garibaldi plugin all purchased recently and they only installed to the beta version.

That's going to be annoying, especially given the odd licensing for two of them.

Ok, so I also have the beta installed which says version ending in 14, this new thing supplants that because it ends in 17?

So now I need to uninstall the recently installed plugins that only went to the beta and reinstall them? I have the LAMH full plugin, Infinito, the Garibaldi plugin all purchased recently and they only installed to the beta version.

That's going to be annoying, especially given the odd licensing for two of them.

This version updates the general release Studio. If you had a release version (for example the previous 4.6.0.18) when you installed the mentioned 3rd party plugins, they will still be there when update to this new release. You should only need to update the plug-ins if the plug-ins themselves update, or you install Studio to a new location.

He's talking about getting his plugins from the beta to this new GR. If you had the beta and the previous release installed at the same time, some plugins chose to install to only the beta over the general release, even when they were labeled as general release plugins and not beta plugins.

Yes, in fact all three that I mentioned do not install with DIM, so when I installed them, I selected the beta to install to.

I am checking now to see what else isn't the same.

I'm missing the Dynamic Cloth Plugin, mine says this, but DIM insists it installed the non basic one.
This is the one I see in the installed plugins
Dynamic Cloth Plugin - Basic

When I look at what DIM installed, it stored something called install_dynamic_clothing_control.bat, are we supposed to run that?

Edited to add: Nevermind, I uninstalled it and re-installed it and now the correct dynamic cloth plugin shows up.
The files were partly there before because when I uninstalled they (dll and bat files) deleted from the plugin directory.
As far as I can tell the same ones came back but this time it works.

Mysterious are the ways...

OK one more edit, in case anyone else worries -- all three manually installed plugins went perfectly. Garibaldi I just entered my serial number, Infinito and LAMH both came up already authorized -- so those two apparently store their keys some place besides the program folder.
Cool beans.

What has been updated in the G2F Starter Essentials? The Doc center product page doesn't show any new change since the one at the beginning of July, and after downloading again now I can't find any files in the zip with a date after that either .... which is one day before the date stamp of the files in My Library?

The Projection Templates were updated to prevent a crash that can occur when a figure (i.e. clothing, hair, etc) is fit to another post-load, because in that scenario the item to be fit is the one selected; as opposed to during load, since in that scenario the figure to be fit to is the one selected. The underlying cause being that the [now updated] templates were originally saved as Wearable Presets, which meant they were saved in the context of loading fit to the 'currently' selected figure (this works fine when fitting happens during load, but not after), instead of as a Scene Subset which saves in the context of loading autonomously regardless of what is selected at the time. This particular update is a stop-gap measure and a broader fix has been implemented in the trunk (already several weeks further along in development), which addresses the issue in a broader context.

'Basic' is installed as part of the standard footprint for DAZ Studio. 'Control' is installed as a separate package. There is a conflict between these two packages in that they both provide a file named the exact same thing. This means that the order in which the files get installed plays an important part in which plugin actually gets loaded. While each package is being installed, the install process does some work to prepare for installation/uninstallation of the associated package(s); so that, for instance, uninstalling 'Control' causes 'Basic' to become 'active' again. Uninstalling and then reinstalling (or updating) the 'Control' package after DAZ Studio [update] has installed should result in the 'Control' version of the plugin being the one that gets loaded.

Installing now. I was told that you guys were releasing a new version of DAZ Studio that would fix any issues with the CMS. I don't see that mentioned in the list on the previous page. Was this held back and if so why?

Installing via DIM still puts the files were the DIM wants to, not over the top of the existing install. I suspect I'll need the 'old trick' of installing the standalone exe and persuading DIM that it's really there :)

Installing via DIM still puts the files were the DIM wants to, not over the top of the existing install. I suspect I'll need the 'old trick' of installing the standalone exe and persuading DIM that it's really there :)

DIM will install applications into the path specified for applications in its Settings(see screenshot below), 64 bit to the 64 bit folder, 32 bit to its folder. In the case of Studio General Release, it will add "/DAZ 3D/DAZStudio4" to the path and install all necessary files into that folder. So for me 64 bit goes to "C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4" and 32 bit goes to "C:\Program Files (x86)\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4". You can change the "C:\Program Files" and "C:\Program Files (x86)" part of the path but not the rest.

If the standalone installer is used, DIM does not consider that an install for its records and so does not try to update it or install to it.

Installing via DIM still puts the files were the DIM wants to, not over the top of the existing install. I suspect I'll need the 'old trick' of installing the standalone exe and persuading DIM that it's really there :)

DIM will install applications into the path specified for applications in its Settings(see screenshot below), 64 bit to the 64 bit folder, 32 bit to its folder. In the case of Studio General Release, it will add "/DAZ 3D/DAZStudio4" to the path and install all necessary files into that folder. So for me 64 bit goes to "C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4" and 32 bit goes to "C:\Program Files (x86)\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4". You can change the "C:\Program Files" and "C:\Program Files (x86)" part of the path but not the rest.

If the standalone installer is used, DIM does not consider that an install for its records and so does not try to update it or install to it.

Could have sworn, at some stage, I seem to have got it all in accord - with DIM agreeing that I had my copy of Daz Studio where I had installed it, which does not include any of the 'twiddly bits' the DIM install insists on adding. Not a problem, so long as the separate installers continue to be produced :)

Installing via DIM still puts the files were the DIM wants to, not over the top of the existing install. I suspect I'll need the 'old trick' of installing the standalone exe and persuading DIM that it's really there :)

DIM will install applications into the path specified for applications in its Settings(see screenshot below), 64 bit to the 64 bit folder, 32 bit to its folder. In the case of Studio General Release, it will add "/DAZ 3D/DAZStudio4" to the path and install all necessary files into that folder. So for me 64 bit goes to "C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4" and 32 bit goes to "C:\Program Files (x86)\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4". You can change the "C:\Program Files" and "C:\Program Files (x86)" part of the path but not the rest.

If the standalone installer is used, DIM does not consider that an install for its records and so does not try to update it or install to it.

Could have sworn, at some stage, I seem to have got it all in accord - with DIM agreeing that I had my copy of Daz Studio where I had installed it, which does not include any of the 'twiddly bits' the DIM install insists on adding. Not a problem, so long as the separate installers continue to be produced :)

The Applications tab will let you set up the DAZ Studio as installed to any setup. This will let plug-ins/shaders/etc install to a custom setup. However that information is not used when Application installs/updates occur.

I won't be switching to this new general release, yet, as "the old" general release got no trouble with my content database, but the beta versions were all practicing "who is the quickest to lose the CMS connection". Both beta and old general release work with the same database, so database corruption is at least highly unlikely as cause. Yes, I got a bug report open for that - targeted at the latest public beta.

I was told that you guys were releasing a new version of DAZ Studio that would fix any issues with the CMS. I don't see that mentioned in the list on the previous page. Was this held back and if so why?

A statement like "would fix any issues with the CMS" is much too broad in scope. Simple fact is, we license a third party solution for the CMS server. As such, we depend on said third party to provide a stable and reliable environment that we can use and build upon. Because we do not develop the CMS server ourselves and therefore do not have complete control over the stability and reliability of it, it is not wise for us to ever claim that an update to it would fix "any" (all) issues it may have. Especially when we've experienced several issues that have required updates to fix it along the way.

Why wasn't it mentioned in the highlights, or the change log? One update IS mentioned in the change log; build 4.6.0.62. I suspect that this isn't, however, the update you may be referring to; one to the CMS server, rather than the client. The server update wasn't mentioned because it wasn't part of this (4.6.1.x) build cycle. There comes a point during the development process where the code must branch and the number of risky changes must quickly and continually decrease. That point was reached before any other changes that may have been mentioned elsewhere but are not highlighted in the announcement or listed in the change log were made to the branch of code we began stabilizing several weeks ago, for this release. Changes to the CMS are typically risky enough to require a lot of testing. Testing has been, and will continue to be, done. That testing quickly revealed that the fixes came at the expense of a conversion process. That conversion process, for a large library, which we know many of our users have, is lengthy. Much lengthier than we were comfortable with exposing users to without adequate notification, before and during. To simply "throw in" an update provided by a third party without thorough testing, to appease those that are experiencing inconsistent issues, would have been extremely irresponsible. To hold on to a release that provides numerous fixes and improvements for "just one more fix", is to be a disservice to our users and to ourselves. We decided to proceed with a planned release, with what we had. Holding on to the CMS server update for the [hopefully] next cycle, so that users could benefit from the fixes/improvements that have been made... now, rather than later.

DAZ needs to kick CMS to the curb. It was bad enough when plug-ins from third parties would stop working do to update changes, the last thing we need is for major functions or the whole program going belly up because of a plug-in outside of DAZ's control.

Installing via DIM still puts the files were the DIM wants to, not over the top of the existing install. I suspect I'll need the 'old trick' of installing the standalone exe and persuading DIM that it's really there :)

Install Manager has no knowledge of that which it did not install. It never has and we have never claimed otherwise. In fact we have been very transparent about this, quite intentionally, from the very beginning. There is simply far too much variability in what has been done to/with files for Install Manager to produce a consistent/reliable experience for them.

It should go without saying, but I will anyway, that any "trick" to "persuade" Install Manager to behave in a manner other than it was designed to is not guaranteed to yield the result you are after. The application was designed to function in a particular way. A way that produces a consistent and reliable experience. Those attempting to be clever should [inherently] understand that they are responsible for their results... both desired and otherwise.

Install Manager allows you to specify the base path(s) for the applications it installs; one for 32-bit applications and one for 64-bit applications; Settings (cog icon, upper right corner) > Installation page. Each application package is then responsible for providing it's own relative path that Install Manager will append to said base path(s). That relative path is plainly visible from the "Ready to Install" page, using the "Show Package Files..." action in the context menu (right-click) and option menu (far right arrow) of every single package. Those two very basic, very simple, things (i.e. base path and relative path) are what determine where Install Manager will install the files of any given application. There is no "trickery" involved.

Often times an application is dependent on the existence of supporting libraries and/or configuration files which need to install to specific areas of your computer (as determined by the operating system and/or library provider), so the package will include those as well. And like the application files listed in the "Package Files" dialog mentioned above, so too are these system dependent relative paths.

In so much as a particular application is supported by Install Manager, when an application is installed by Install Manager an entry for that application (version and bit architecture specific) is added to the Settings >Applications page, for the current account. This entry is then used by application dependent extension packages (i.e. plugins, shaders, content that installs like a plugin, etc.) to know where to install to. If you did not use Install Manager to install an application, and you haven't manually added said application (version and bit architecture dependent) to the list, Install Manager does not know where it should install those types of packages. If you are going to mix installation methods (i.e. standalone installer for the application and Install Manager for add-ons), you will need to become familiar with how this works because the application cannot do it for you (as it does when you just use Install Manager).

Thanks for the response Rob. I understand your needing to make sure the CMS update is stable. Even though my situation was one in a million it brought my being able to create content to a stand still. What seemed to be what put CMS on it's ear was having two versions of DAZ Studio installed side by side so perhaps you can suss out what might have been the cause. Since uninstalling both and updating to just, at the time, the public release beta and reinstalling the CMS and reimporting the data all was well. But it was a 12 hour nightmare I'd just assume not repeat. I will NOT have two versions of DAZ Studio installed ever again if I can remember not to! lol That was just no fun.